The concept of pagerank is based on a link. One link is a vote. Each vote counts and is calculated for the points for determining pagerank. More links you receive from other sites, more popular your web site becomes in the eyes of Google. But pagerank is just one factor for a higher position in search engines. It is not the only factor.

Increasing PR

The familiar term for SEO today probably is link exchange more than anything else. The emphasis on it is so strong that many people think SEO is a matter of link exchange. This is because of misunderstanding of what pagerank does. Pagerank is just one factor, and even increasing PR sometimes doesn't promise you a higher position at all. Some wrong methods of link exchange can cause troubles in fact. You should NOT try to increase your web site pagerank for its own sake. Your focus is to be listed on a higher search engine ranking page. Again, increasing PR is important, but it is NOT the most important thing in SEO.

Smart way

Each one of your backlinks is calculated based on the pagerank where your link is on in your partner's web site. If the page is PR0, the point you gain would be very little. So, it is always good to find a partner whose link page has a high PR. Check the list below and think how effectively you can increase your PR faster. *This is for a reference purpose only. While the calculation part is very close to the predicted PRs, there are other factors get involved in determining PR. If your page is, for example, penalized in any way, you may lose some points.

Condition: 50 outbound links are on your partner's link page

Case: PR1

See the case of PR1. In order for your web page to become PR1, you will need 20 links from a link page that is PR1 and placed 49 links to other web sites.

Case: PR2

You now only need 4 links from PR2 for your web page to become PR1.

Case: PR3

4 links from PR3 will make your web page PR2.

Case: PR4

Case: PR5

Case: PR6

Case: PR7

Keep focusing on relevancy

Ideal link exchange should be done with your partner websites that are relevant to your web site theme. It is sometimes hard to find many web sites that are similar to yours. What's more, you may end up helping your competitors. However, the better way to exchange links is always the issue of relevancy. Though pagerank will still increase as long as you do the link exchange, focusing on the relevancy of your site and partner's site is something you should not ignore. Ideally, your outbound links should be to relevant web sites more than the outbound links that go to irrelevant sites. See also Link Popularity